To Quote Hemingway
by livelyfingered
Summary: "But then she realized that she was thinking in incoherent parenthetical side-notes, and parenthetical side-notes are only marginally better than dictionary entries." / In which Austin serenades Ally with Hemingway references. AustinAlly. Oneshot.


_**To Quote Hemingway**_

"But then she realized that she was thinking in incoherent parenthetical side-notes, and parenthetical side-notes are only marginally better than dictionary entries." / In which Austin serenades Ally with Hemingway references. AustinAlly. Oneshot.

**:::**

**A/N: Here's a little oneshot that decided to ride in on the stream of post-New Year fics about the New Year. Just a shoutout to **LoveShipper **– not quite what you were expecting, I know, but hopefully you'll enjoy it anyway.**

**And a little note of appreciation and assurance to **a cold day in december **– I'm posting this oneshot instead of the multichapter I was considering, but there's more to come – no worries! And to the Auslly fans reading this – if you haven't already read the multitude of beautiful fics from **a cold day in december** – oh gosh, you know what you have to do.**

**Oh, and don't worry if you don't know much about Hemingway. I read **_**For Whom the Bell Tolls **_**last summer and just had to tie a quote or two into this fic, haha. There are some quotes from other classics, but they aren't crucial to the plot or anything. **

**Enjoy, and let me know what you think!**

**:::**

She hadn't forgotten what she was doing. In all honesty, she was ashamed of it.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the virtuous Ally Dawson had allowed a boy – a _reckless_ boy, no less – to enter her room. Her father didn't know, of course, and that made it all the more irresponsible. Under any other circumstances, she would have forcefully dismissed the teenage male in question away from her window – and more importantly, out of the danger zone.

_Danger zone_: arbitrarily defined area around Dawson property; more specifically, within what Ally Dawson considers as the hearing distance of Lester Dawson, who – please note – probably does not suspect his daughter of taking certain liberties, anyway.

But back to reality, please. This was Austin Moon.

_Austin Moon_: blond, insanely earnest crooner with an insatiable desire for clambering up to Ally Dawson's bedroom and waving excitedly at her through the window; famously escaped unscathed from the danger zone (see: _danger zone_) on a certain New Year's Eve.

That year, she made it her New Year's resolution to stop thinking in dictionary entries.

:::

_While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping…_

"Oh—for heaven's sake."

She glared half-heartedly at the pane of glass, which featured a few lopsided letters rubbed hastily into a rapidly condensing human-breath-induced fog. He grinned sheepishly at her before silently motioning for her to open the window. "Please," he mouthed.

With a resigned sigh, she released the latch and flung the windowpane upwards – being exceptionally careful, of course, not to wake her loudly snoring father. She let out a gasp, however, when Miami's favorite internet sensation subsequently crashed onto the rug. His hand immediately flew up to cover her mouth.

"_Shh_," he urged.

She began to splutter indignantly. "You're telling me?" she whispered. "Austin, you're the one who just made the house shake."

"Oh, _but_ _did thee feel the earth move_?" He smirked suggestively at her, and she almost succumbed to the flustered grin tugging insistently at the corners of her mouth.

"Don't – don't quote Hemingway on me," she grumbled, and he laughed lightly.

"Uh-huh. Miss Dawson – who _just now _was reading 'The Raven' in her room for, like, the _twentieth_ time – doesn't appreciate guys pulling literary references on her."

"Well—" she put her hands up in mock defense, "—that _particular_ reference wasn't exactly appropriate, you know. I mean, he tells her _that_ after they have – after they do… you know."

His laughter gradually subsided and the two lapsed into a relaxed silence. She hated to break the clever banter they had started, but her curiosity got the best of her. "So – why are you here?"

He looked as if he was trying to suck in words from the air, and she watched rigidly as he gaped dumbly at her. "Austin? Do you – do you _know_ why you're here?" she tried again, but to no avail. He was at a complete loss for words. The sudden transformation was unbelievable.

He gulped nervously.

"I – I honestly don't know. Oh, Ally – I really don't know," he stuttered, and she noticed the mixed emotions that flashed out at her from his eyes. He was simultaneously lost (_in his heart_) and scared (_of her father finding them_) and confused (_because he's been waiting, waiting, always waiting, for something to happen_), and she found something utterly and completely endearing about his cluelessness.

"I guess I followed my heart, though," he said with newfound confidence, and suddenly she, in turn, was spiraling into a myriad of subconscious thoughts (_self-doubt_) and warm feelings (_reciprocated love_) and questions (_always so many questions_).

But then she realized that she was thinking in incoherent parenthetical side-notes, and parenthetical side-notes are only marginally better than dictionary entries.

:::

Austin had an idea. Naturally, it wasn't the _best_ of ideas – at least, not in Ally's opinion.

He grinned mischievously before leaping onto her bed, bouncing a little too excitedly. "Austin," she hissed, "what are you _doing_?"

He raised his eyebrows innocently. "I'm defying the danger zone."

"What—"

He moaned, and he moaned _loudly. _She squeaked and dove on top of him, hastily trying to muffle the animalistic noises. "Stop it! No, Austin, stop!" He barely noticed their intimate position, and instead snickered teasingly at her.

"Let's see if your dad wakes up," he whispered into her ear.

"Thanks a lot, Austin. Now he'll think we're doing something," she groaned into his chest. Only then did she realize how embarrassingly _close_ they were, but frankly, she didn't mind. (But she'd never admit that. She maintained that she was too absorbed in listening for her father's footsteps.)

"Coast is clear," he sang. "See, Ally? We can make as much _noise_ as we want."

She screeched indignantly and attempted to move away from him, but Austin, chuckling, pulled her back easily. He brought her down to face him fully, and she was sure he could sense her shallow breathing.

(She blamed those darn teenage hormones.)

:::

They hadn't bothered to move.

"Eleven fifty-nine," he muttered up at her. "Excited for the new year?"

"_In the meantime_," she breathed, "_all the life you have or ever will have is today, tonight, tomorrow, today, tonight, tomorrow, over and over again_…"

"Quoting Hemingway, eh?" he said laughingly. "So you're saying that you don't find anything particularly _special _about New Year's Eve – it's just another day, right?"

She ignored him. "It's midnight, Austin. Happy New Year – I guess."

He touched her cheek and for the first time, she looked directly into his eyes. And then they were kissing – _oh jeez, she was kissing a boy in her bed _– and they were kissing and_ they were kissing_ – and teenagers shouldn't think about love but _she was thinking about it_.

She pulled away. Breathlessly, she said, "_I loved you when I saw you today_."

And of course, it was only fitting for him to launch into full-on Hemingway. "_I love thee and thou art so lovely and so wonderful and so beautiful and it does such things to me to be with thee that I feel as though I want to die when I love thee_."

"Longest sentence in the history of Hemingway," she murmured. "And so _unreal_, don't you think?"

"But it's true, Ally," he said. "It's true."

**I don't even want to **_**think**_** about how or why they memorized all those quotes.**

**By the way, that review button is looking so sleek right now. (I'm just kidding, haha.) But seriously, if you enjoyed this, please consider leaving me a little note. Thank you!**


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